Networking architectures have grown increasingly complex in communication environments. As the subscriber base increases and/or becomes mobile, proper routing and efficient management of communication sessions and data flows becomes important.
Oftentimes, a network service provider (also referred to as a network operator) provides network services to a subscriber based on a service plan associated with the subscriber. The service plan can indicate the quota of data volume that can be transmitted and/or received by the subscriber. The service plan can also indicate the policy for managing the subscriber's mobile device. The policy can indicate, for example, whether the subscriber's mobile device can communicate over a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, whether the subscriber's mobile device can access the operator's communication network using a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), and/or whether the subscriber's mobile device should be guaranteed a minimum Quality of Service (QoS) or data throughput in communication.
A network operator may host several communication sessions that are subject to a single service plan. For example, several subscribers may establish independent communication sessions, each of which may be subject to a family plan. As another example, a single subscriber may establish multiple communication sessions, each of which may be subject to a single service plan for the subscriber.
Traditionally, a network operator managed multiple sessions associated with a single service plan using a Policy and Charging Rules Function (PCRF) and/or an Online Charging System (OCS). The PCRF/OCS was configured to maintain information associated with the multiple sessions, and to recognize that the multiple sessions are associated with a single service plan. Furthermore, the PCRF/OCS was configured to ensure that the multiple sessions complied with the quota and/or policy requirement of the single service plan.
For example, suppose that a subscriber is subscribed to a service plan that provides a 3 mega-bytes-per-second (MBPS) throughput and 3 giga-byte (GB) of quota, and the subscriber's mobile device initiates three communication sessions at the same time under the service plan. In this case, the OCS can allocate 1 GB of quota per session and the PCRF can allocate 1 MBPS of throughput per session. This way, the PCRF/OCS ensures that the subscriber does not consume more communication bandwidth or communication capacity than is authorized under the single service plan.
Unfortunately, the PCRF/OCS may inadvertently deteriorate subscriber experience in one of the sessions due to inappropriate allocation of resources. Referring back to the example provided above, while allocating an equal amount of quota and throughput to each of the sessions is a reasonable way to ensure compliance with the service plan, such an equal allocation of resources does not take into account the fact that one of the sessions may require more quota and/or throughput compared to another. For instance, one of the three sessions may be associated with an audio stream and another one of the three sessions may be associated with a video stream. In this instance, the audio stream would require significantly less quota and throughput compared to the video stream. Therefore, the video stream may be throttled for the lack of resources, even though the subscriber may have plenty of resources available for the audio stream. Therefore, allocating the same amount of quota and throughput to both the audio stream and the video stream would be suboptimal from the user experience perspective. A similar problem can also exist in cases where multiple mobile devices are subject to a single family service plan. This type of problem is often referred to as a fragmentation of resources.
In view of the foregoing, it may be understood that there may be significant problems and shortcomings associated with current technologies for managing multiple communication sessions associated with a single service plan.